


A Whole Lotta Love

by mattzerella_sticks



Series: Season 14 Inspired [12]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: "The Spear" Coda, 14x09 Coda, All happens within Baby, Almost Confessions, Cas POV, Castiel Sings, Coda, Cute Castiel, Cute Dean Winchester, Dean Winchester Sings, Dean Winchester is Bad at Feelings, Domestic Fluff, Embarrassed Dean Winchester, Flustered Dean Winchester, Led Zeppelin - Freeform, M/M, Music, Whole Lotta Love, based around the sneak preview scene, carpool karaoke, fun times, with a touch of angst at the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 09:55:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16972407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mattzerella_sticks/pseuds/mattzerella_sticks
Summary: Coda to 14x09 "The Spear"With a broken tape deck, Dean and Cas have a long stretch of silence to fill. But just how do they do it? And they say driving helps take your mind off of things... even forget dangling pianos hanging over one's head.





	A Whole Lotta Love

**Author's Note:**

> Whaddup y'all! I'm A DAY EARLY!!! PEW PEW PEW!!!
> 
> So like all you other Destiel fans I saw the preview and the gifs about the preview and the DISCUSSIONS about the preview and decided to fill in a missing scene I'm sure many other writers will do as well (I'm just doing it early lol).
> 
> Plus this might be my Coda for the week (possibly, maybe not depending on how the episode ends tomorrow)!
> 
> Anyway... enjoy!

            “You know what would be good right now?”

            Cas glances at Dean from out the corner of his eye, the other man focused, for once, on the road ahead. “Some _Zepp_ ,” he says, “I can picture it – us tearing down this open stretch of highway with _Immigrant_ _Song_ playing in the background. Oh! Or maybe _Kashmir_ …”

            “That would be nice, yes,” Cas sighs, “…if our tape deck weren’t broken.”

            “Yeah – yeah…” Dean drums his hands on the wheel. “Y’know, I don’t remember how long it’s been since I’ve driven this long in silence? Not that this isn’t nice. It is. Its just music –“

            “Fills the background,” Cas finishes his thought, “adds layers…depth… _security_.”

            Dean murmurs his agreement. They drift back into themselves, the tides of their conversation slowly receding from shore. It’s been like that since they left the Bunker. Every so often one of them would start speaking, only to lull back into the quiet. Dean would point out different road signs, crack a joke or two to Cas. And Cas would smile, respond with his own observation; maybe a memory that would have both of them grinning at each other. Enjoying the shared moment.

            “I feel like we haven’t had a lot of this,” Dean says, unprovoked.

            “A lot of what?”

            “This.” Dean circles his finger in the air. “You and me. Shootin’ the breeze instead of demons or vamps or whatever else supernatural creature the world throws at us.”

            “Really?” Cas asks him, “Has it been that long since you and I were… _alone_?”

            “Yeah,” Dean says, blushing, “Not that I’ve been… counting, or whatever. But between Michael, Jack, and the growing network of hunters it’s hard to just find time to think or… _breathe_.”

            “Those seem like things you don’t need another person for.”

            “I like having you near when I do those things.”

            “Even breathing?”

            “Even breathing…”

            Cas watches Dean pay the road more attention than he’s ever seen him give it. Like the stretch of asphalt holds all the answers their destination was promised. Its unnerving that he thinks good safety practices as weird behavior, but he misses having Dean’s eyes on him rather than what’s ahead. ‘ _We’ve had enough luck to not crash so far… I’m sure we can push it a few more times._ ’

            “Hey Cas?”

            “Yes, Dean.”

            “How was Heaven?” Cas pauses, unsure of how to answer. Dean fills the vacuum with his own drawling ramble. “I mean, you didn’t talk about it much after bringing Jack back and – you said it was in trouble? I know since Gabriel didn’t make it back, stuff up there was running kinda off and – I mean, if you needed to go and make sure… it’s not like I can stop you –“

            “My service to Heaven is over,” he tells him, “I have done… all I could. And I feel I have repaid my debts to the other angels. Naomi told me as such –“

            “Naomi? Ol’ girl’s still kicking?”

            “Apparently it takes more than one old scribe and a rebel angel to kill her.” Cas chuckles, “She has been keeping the peace among all seven of my brothers and sisters that serve under her now.”

            “It’s gotten that bad?” he asks.

            Cas nods. “I don’t know how Heaven might survive. And that might be a problem we deal with later, once our Michael problem is solved.”

            “ _We_?”

            “Of course… Dean,” Cas says, “you didn’t think I would go back, after all this was over. Did you?” The thought stings, but he doesn’t let it fester. ‘ _Don’t get too far ahead of yourself, Castiel…_ ’

            Dean shakes his head furiously. “No, no I would – not _realistically_ , after all we… but…”

            “But…”

            “It’s stupid…”

            “If it’s causing you this much stress, I assure you it isn’t.”

            “Well, I don’t know,” Dean sighs, grip tightening on the wheel. “Sometimes, I feel like I’m gonna blink and – _poof_! You’ll disappear. It’s irrational and dumb but it… it sticks. Even though you’ve proven time and time again you’re here to stay and I _want_ to believe it. Except this little part of me thinks it might be… _too_ good to be true, y’know? Kind of why I wanted only _us_ on this I… I needed you here beside me.”

            “Dean I…” ‘ _When you finally allow the sun to shine on your face… that’s when I’ll collect you._ ’ “I don’t plan on leaving. _Ever_. I wish there was something I could do to relieve you of that worry.”

            “I don’t think you ever can but… being here it – it shuts it down.”

            His heart aches, yearns, and reaches out to the other man. But Cas keeps it behind steel walls, ensuring his secret never comes out. ‘ _It’s for the best… for all of us_.’

            “God that was – this is what I mean,” Dean warbles a laugh, rubbing at his eye. “If we had music we wouldn’t – it’s stuffy, isn’t it? Could you roll down – I’m gonna roll mine, I think we need some air, so could you…?” They leave the windows half-up. “Yeah… that’s better.”

            He still looks uncomfortable. Dean shifts continuously. Sliding his hands up and down the wheel, taking one off to lean either on the door or to fiddle with the radio. Cas suggested they turn it on, when Dean discovered the tape deck was broken. “I don’t… it’s not the music I wanted _you_ to hear.”

            Cas understands how much music means to Dean. What it means to probably every person on Earth. Each vibration and note a key that unlocks a part of the soul. And when someone shares music, they’re giving you a chance to know who they are and what they feel.

            Dean handed him the mixtape ages ago. He barely looked Cas in the eye when he did it, muttering all the while. “I know Metatron beamed probably the entire discography of the _world_ into your head but I… figured you might want to hear what _good_ music sounds like for yourself.” Cas enjoyed it immensely. He found himself banging his head to the loud, fast tracks. He crooned along to the power ballads. Even in moments alone, Cas hummed the melody, the words on a loop in his mind as he performed for no one yet also one _very_ special person.

            “You need coolin’… baby I’m not foolin’…” It’s a low whisper, his gravely voice shredding the words in a discordant tone. “I’m gonna send you back to schoolin’…”

            “Way down inside,” Dean joins in, his own voice just as rough to hear, “honey you _need_ it.” He finally looks away from the road, to Cas, his jaw slack with awe. “I’m gonna give you my love…”

            “I’m gonna give you my love, oh…”

            Together. “Wanna whole lotta love… Wanna whole lotta love…” They’re smiling, infected with the rhythm. As Baby purrs down the highway, Dean and Cas Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” from the top of their lungs, voices echoing into the clear, blue sky. At some points, Dean forces Cas to play the air guitar. And he does, indifferent to how ridiculous he might look. Their singing mixes with laughter, and near the end the melody gets lost in the shuffle.

            Gasping for breath, Dean glances at Cas one more time before returning his gaze on the road. “What made you pick that song?”

            “I… I don’t know,” Cas confesses, “When I would listen to your… your mixtape I wound it back time and time again – just to that song. I think it’s my favorite.”

            “Not Stairway to Heaven?”

            Cas chuckles. “No this one… means _more_ to me.” He finds something to distract himself, fiddling with the map in hand. Cas checks a passing road sign. “I think we’re coming up on the turn… you might want to switch lanes.”

            “Yeah, yeah…” Dean turns the wheel, Baby cruising over onto the right-most lane. They make it off the highway, closing the last couple of miles between them and the Spear. “Hey, Cas?”

            “Yes, Dean?”

            “That song means a lot to me, too. I’m glad you… _appreciate_ it, same as me. S’why I put it at the end; kinda… ties it all together, in a way.” His neck is on _fire_ , the red blush creeping up from behind his collar with unmatched speed. “I think we’re here… sheesh, what a _dump_.”

            “Well, it’s quite literally a dump, Dean.”

            “I know but you’d think she’d clean up since we’re paying her a house call and all.”

            “…She doesn’t know that we’re coming. It’s the element of surprise?”

            “Cas,” Dean says, his voice tinged with exasperation and something _else_ , “…keep being you.” He drives Baby between two tall stacks of crushed aluminum and plastic. “Roll the windows back up, don’t want any stench messing up our ride.” Cas does so as Dean parks. He readies to leave, but something drapes over his hand, stalling him.

            “Hey, Cas…”

            “…Yes, Dean?”

            “I – um, I don’t know,” he rubs at his neck with his other hand, looking at Cas through his lashes. “I mean, I do know – it’s just…” Dean laughs, smile stretched wide across his face.

            The sight parts the clouds within Cas’s mind, and he feels a flicker of warmth burning inside his chest. “What?”

            “I think maybe I can get this out but… just give me a minute?” he asks, “There’s… a lot going on in my head.” Cas allows him to gather his thoughts, eyes never straying from his face.

            Except there’s a slight buzzing to his left, like a gnat flying to close to his ear. Cas turns to see what it is and –

            Duma stands a few feet away. Except it’s not Duma, it’s the _Empty_. They watch them, face etched in a cannibalistic grin. Behind them swirls a dark energy, a mass of shadowy tendrils swaying, as if ready to strike.

            The clouds roll back in.

            And Cas pulls away. “Maybe later,” he apologizes, “Dark Kaia might know that we’re here and… move. From what you’ve told me she can be very tricky.” Dean’s expression changes in an instant, and even though he tries to cover it up, Cas could see the flicker of disappointment flashing behind his eyes. As if Cas chopped down a tree in his emerald forest that took ages to grow.

            “Yeah… yeah.”

            Cas swings the door open, stepping out into the waste yard. Dean follows at a slower pace, head down, already readying the bag of weapons they brought with them. He watches the other man, pain and sadness welling inside of him, because of what he had to do. ‘ _Not now… I can’t – I can never…_ ’ He slams the door. ‘ _I may never have it, but Dean **deserves** it_.’

            “You seem good, lately. Happy, even…”

**Author's Note:**

> What do y'all think?
> 
> Honestly, the karaoke scene was unplanned but it is now in my Top Ten favorite things I've ever written about Dean and Cas.
> 
> Let me know what you think? Drop a kudos/comment!!


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